


Here we meet again

by Marla_singer93



Category: Bleach
Genre: Eventual Fluff, Eventual Smut, F/M, Romance, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-10
Updated: 2020-08-10
Packaged: 2021-03-06 01:27:37
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,758
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25825105
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Marla_singer93/pseuds/Marla_singer93
Summary: Rukia and Renji have been apart for 40 years . Now they are back in each other's life and slowly reconciling.
Relationships: Abarai Renji/Kuchiki Rukia
Comments: 2
Kudos: 9





	Here we meet again

Byakuya Kuchiki was still convalescent, laying in a bed in one of the Fourth Division’s rooms. He was looking out of the open window, watching the Seireitei’s inhabitants rushing through the streets. A light breeze came into the room.

Some days had passed since Aizen, Ichimaru and Tousen’s disappearance. The whole thing had upset the entire Gotei 13, which was slowly trying to get back to a semblance of normality.

Sitting on a chair near Byakuya’s bed was his lieutenant, Renji Abarai. He was leaning forward, his elbows resting on his knees, his eyes absorbed in his thoughts.

“Renji.”

“Yes, sir,” said Renji, suddenly raising up his head.

“It is not necessary for you visit me everyday. I am sure you have plenty of more important things to do...”

“Not at all, sir...”

“… such as running the Sixth Division in my absence.”

Renji was speechless. “Actually, Captain, I...”

“Before you go, Renji, there are a few questions I would like to ask you.”

There was a moment of silence, only disturbed by the voices of the shinigami on the streets coming from out of the window.

“I was very surprised, perhaps shocked, about everything that happened with Rukia. My noble sister sentenced to death for transferring her powers to a human child… that very human child raising his sword against all the captains and vice-capitains of the Gotei to save her… but what surprised me the most was you raising you sword against me, your own captain, in order to save Rukia.”

Renji suddenly broke into a cold sweat.

“I must confess I was quite confused when I heard you had faced Ichigo Kurosaki on your own, against the instructions provided to the lieutenants, and then escaped prison to face me. I am still having a hard time figuring this all out.  
I know that both you and Rukia came from the same Rukongai slum, as you pointed out the night we arrested her. And hearing you two calling each other by your first names, I imagined that was not the first time you had met.” Byakuya paused for a moment, and looked up at Renji, making sure he was following.

“But apart from that, it was my convinction that the two of you were basically strangers. Besides some cordial greetings and bows that I have seen you exchanging through the Gotei aisles, I do not remember ever seeing you two entertaining any friendly relationship, nor I have ever heard Rukia mentiong you, or vice versa.

“You should understand, then, how surprised I was seeing you challenging your own comrades and your own captain to rush to Rukia’s side. Jeopardize your position before the law, and your new position as a vice-captain… all this for a stranger,” he said in a placid voice.

“The question naturally arises, Renji. What drove you to try saving Rukia? What kind of relationship do you have with my sister, exactly?”

Renji looked at his captain with a serious face, his jaw tense.

“You see, Captain...”

“… were you perhaps friends during your days at the Shinigami Academy? Now that I mention it, Renji, I must confess that I have always had the impression that I had already seen you somewhere, long before you applied for lieutenancy or before you belonged to the Eleventh and the Fifth Divisions. Is it possible that I had seen you back then, perhaps the day I went to the Academy to tell Rukia about the adoption proposal?”

Renji deeply breathed. “Captain, yes. Rukia and I were friends back in the Academy. And yes, you and I crossed paths for the first time right there. I didn’t think… you would remember me.” He didn’t mention that he remembered Byakuya Kuchiki very well, indeed. He didn’t tell him how well he recalled their first meeting in that big room at the Academy, his spiritual pressure so powerful that it took his breath away and made him lower his gaze. And he didn’t say that, since the day Byakuya took Rukia away, Renji swore he would train every day to reach Byakuya’s level, and that from that moment he had become his role model. “Anyway, sir, Rukia and I had known each other from way before the Academy.”

Byakuya looked at Renji with a questioning look, clearly eager to know more.

“Rukia and I grew up in the same Rukongai district. To be precise, Rukia and I grew up… together. We met as children in the streets of the 78th, and we spent the following ten years in each other’s company, together with some other children that we were friends with. We were… very close. We decided to enter the Academy together, after seeing our friends dying one after the other. It was just the two of us left.” Renji lowered his gaze to the floor. Thinking about those days was pretty heavy for him. Recalling ghosts of the past and the wistful memories of Rukia and himself in their youth was something he was not happy to do.

“Still, as I said, I do not remember ever seeing the two of you entertain any kind of relationship during your years at the Gotei.”

“As you correctly noticed, Captain, Rukia and I just greeted each other if we crossed paths in the Gotei’s hallways.” He paused, trying to weigh his words. “We stopped talking since the day she was informed the Kuchiki Family wished to adopt her. The night of her arrest was the first time we talked to each other in forty years.”

There was silence for a while. Then Byakuya spoke.

“Still, after forty years of absence from each other’s life, you decided to run to her rescue and try to stop her execution,” said Byakuya, narrowing his eyes.

“… again, we were very close,” Renji answered, lowering his head.

“I see. Very well, Vice-Captain, I have the answers I was looking for. My intention, after having you arrested, and again after defeating you, was to remove you as lieutenant of the Sixth Division, of course, and appeal to the Central 46 to have you removed from any office as a shinigami whatsoever.”

Renji swallowed loudly. Why were they talking about this again? He thought he would be able to keep his position as vice-captain.

“Of course, in light of the subsequent developments about Aizen’s plan to execute Rukia and take possession of the Hogyoku… and Rukia being released from prison… I would say we can put it all behind us.”

Thank God, Renji thought.

“You are dismissed. I expect to get back on the schedule in a couple of days. Meanwhile, the supervision of the Company is in your hands.”

“Yes, sir, thank you, sir. Umh… have a nice day.”

He bowed and left the room at a brisk pace.

_______________________________________________________________________

Rukia, on the other hand, was heading to the Fourth Division at a brisk pace. She was wearing a violet yukata adorned with yellow and ivory flowers.

Walking through the Seireitei streets still felt alienating after two months of absence spent in the Living World and several weeks of imprisonment. Her powers hadn’t come back yet, and nobody knew how long it would take, and if they would ever come back at all.

Also, the removal of the Hogyoku from her body had left her quite destabilized, since the small orb had taken part of her with it.”.

While waiting to regain her physical strength and, she hoped, her spiritual powers, she wore civilian clothes and had a lot of spare time on her hands. She was using that time to make her daily visit to Nii-sama.

Ichigo and his friends’ departure had left a void inside her. However, the melancholy she felt was sweet. Deep down inside, she knew that it wasn’t the last time they would see each other. And, as much as she had fallen in love with the Living World, and though she had left a piece of her heart there, among her teenager friends, she was happy to be back to Soul Society. Rukia Kuchiki was a shinigami, and that was her home.

She entered the gates of the Fourth Division and walked towards the patients’ rooms. Occasionally, somebody would recognize her and gently bow saying: “good morning, Kuchiki-san”.  
She still didn’t understand exactly how everybody saw her after the whole arrest and execution thing. The whole Seireitei knew how things had really gone by now; it was true, she had given her powers to a human being, which was a crime. But the execution turned out to be a plan hatched by Aizen to take possession of the Hogyoku. Under normal circumstances, the punishment would have been totally disproportionate to her crimes. The weeks she had spent in prison had been judged the right penalty for transfering her powers to Ichigo Kurosaki, and she was then cleared of any other charge.

Anyway, she still felt like people looked at her in a funny way, they all looked quite embarassed and awkward while greeting her. She didn’t understand if, deep down, people still considered her some kind of criminal, as if transfering her powers to a human, even if under grave circumstances and imminent danger of death, had somehow dishonored her forever. Or maybe people was still weirded out at the idea of the whole Seireitei and Gotei 13 sliding into the abyss of chaos for her to be saved, noble but insignificant unseated Miss No One of the Thirteenth Division.

She had almost arrived at Byakuya’s room, when she saw someone coming towards her.

“Renji!”

“Oi… Rukia.”

They stopped in the middle of the aisle. An uncomfortable silence fell, while they tried to avoid each other’s gaze, not exactly knowing what to say.

They still hadn’t had the chance to talk properly since the day of Rukia’s rescue. After Aizen’s disappearance, Renji was immediately transfered to the Fourth Division to receive appropriate treatment. Apparently, he was quickly discharged, because they saw each other two days later when everybody met up to say goodbye to Ichigo and the others, but they didn’t quite have the chance to talk, as Renji was immediately recalled to his vice-captain’s duties, and Rukia herself had to manage some paperwork regarding her release from prison.

She had known from Nii-sama that Renji had been visiting him everyday, but they hadn’t been able to meet yet until that moment, probabily because they always visited Byakuya at different times of the day.

So basically, the last moment they had spent together and actually talked was during their escape from Sokyoku Hill, while Renji was holding her in his arms.

During the last days, actually, Rukia had been thinking a lot about the whole thing.  
Everything had happened so fast. Renji had abruptly slipped back into her existence.  
They hadn’t been talking to each other for forty years, and at their first meeting after all that time, Renji was there to arrest her. He had drawn Zabimaru at her, wounding her on the face, and had smashed her into a lamppost, holding her by the throat. A few weeks after, that very same Renji was holding her into his arms, drawing his sword against Aizen, screaming: “I’ll never let her go, you bastard!”

There was something she was just not getting.

The strangest thing, though, was that after forty years where they avoided not only eye contact, but crossing each other’s path, they had started talking again as if nothing happened. That night in the Living World, Vice-Captain Abarai was colloquially calling her “Rukia”, like they had just seen each other for the last time the day before. He had gone visiting her in prison, had took the piss out of her, told her to wipe that depressing look off her fucking face, and to get something into her stomach if she didn’t want to just pass out. He had slammed his hand over her shoulder while whispering at her ear that some ryoka had broken into Soul Society. And when Byakuya had told her that the punishment for her crimes was going to be death, he had looked visibily shaken.

She thought that, after all those years where they tried at all costs to avoid each other, it would have been extremely embarassing starting to talk again, like when you see a long-time friend after many years and all the complicity you used to have has turned to coldness and awkwardness. Instead, it didn’t feel like a day had passed.

Maybe that was all because of the impetuosity of the whole situation. The night they had come to arrest her, there certainly hadn’t been time for pleasantries. There was no time for “Abarai-fukutaichou” nor for “Kuchiki-san”, as Renji drew his zanpakuto at Ichigo. There had only been time to jump on his back, grab his hand and try to stop his attack.

Or maybe that was all because of the absurdity of the whole situation. While in jail, there had been no time to cry, to feel desperate. He had kicked at the prison bars to make her react, and she had taken the piss out of his eyebrows. Not so much had changed since the times when he used to kick her ass out of the Academy classrooms, and when they used to endlessly tease each other. 

When Byakuya had told her about the capital punishment, however, and Renji had tried to comfort her, she had put on a fake cheerful mask and started blathering about how exciting her escape would have been, and told him to stop worrying about her, and worry instead about his goddamn eyebrows. He stormed off wishing her to die. They never told each other how they really felt. Two Inuzuri kids like them weren’t good at dealing with emotions. That hadn’t changed very much since the Academy, either.

Still, they were now in the middle of the aisle, one in front of the other, feeling quite clumsy.  
After the whole rescue thing, were they going to keep talking like old buddies or were they going to come back to the coldness and the aloofness? They really didn’t know.

“How… how you doing? What about your wounds?” asked Rukia.

“I’m surprisingly ok. I have been back to work for a few days, actually. Your brother decided to pardon me and isn’t removing me from my duties as vice-captain, so during his absence I’ve had quite a lot to do at the Sixth”.

“I see...”

“What about you? You came to visit your brother?”

“Yeah, yes, that’s right. I come by every day. I’m okay, I just feel kind of weakened from the… Hogyoku extraction, you know.” Talking about the Hogyoku so lightly felt almost taboo. And the thought of that obscure little orb dwelling right inside her body made her feel really uncomfortable. “No sign of my powers coming back, of course.”

“Be confident. You were born with spiritual powers. That is not something that can be taken away from you. Your powers will eventually resurface.”

“I really hope you’re right.”

Silence fell again. Rukia did not want the conversation to end like that. In the last days of her thinking about all that had happened, she had thought a few times about asking Renji to talk.  
They couldn’t pretend that nothing had ever happened, that he hadn’t contributed to her rescue, and that somehow they hadn’t returned to be part of each other’s life, even if in such a sudden and unexpected way. She hadn’t even said thank you to him. They couldn’t go back pretending they were two perfect strangers.

Renji rubbed the back of his neck. “Well then, I suppose I’ll see you aroun-”

“What about we have a chat one of these days, Renji?”

“Mh?”

“Maybe we could… go out for a drink and talk about everything that’s happened. I think… we have a lot to catch up on.”

“… is that a date, or something?”

And now there was no awkwardness anymore.

“You idiot! I just asked you to go drinking something and to talk! Well, if you don’t want to, that’s perfectly fine for me, I can...”

Renji suddenly started chuckling. “I’m just kidding, just kidding… yeah, sure, fine, we can have a drink together. We sure have a lot to catch up on.”

“Fine” said Rukia, crossing her arms and facing away from him, slightly irritated.

“Is Friday night ok for you? 9pm?” asked Renji.

“Sounds good to me. Let’s meet up in the main square.”

They said goodbye to each other and Rukia proceeded to Byakuya’s room.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you very much to [Polynya](https://archiveofourown.org/users/polynya/profile) for helping me translate this :)


End file.
